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User blog:LightStone123/401st Games Info
As the 401st Games are nearly over, I've decided that I will retrofit this blog to give some analysis on the tributes and discuss my thoughts and feelings about them. I will even cover some nixed storylines. There are some things, however, that I will not speak about until the Games are over. I will proceed in chronological death order, so that means I will begin with Ophelia and work my way down to the eventual Victor. So, without further ado, let's begin the discussion. Ophelia Thrindell Ophelia was a character that I personally liked, but had no real storyline for. I thought about trying to play her as a wildcard loner type who'd stay out of the action and lurk in the shadows, but I already had Nylah and Avan to fill that role. Another thing I could have done was let her survive the bloodbath and see what kind of advice her mentor gave her, then decide a role for her from that. Actually, that was exactly what I originally planned. As you can see in the bloodbath, it's noted that Ophelia is facing away from the cornucopia. I originally had her fleeing the bloodbath and surviving, but then her advice came in and had her actually attending the bloodbath. Without a real plan for her, I decided that it was simply best to kill her off. Sometimes you just have to kill characters you like for the sake of the story. Twan Crane I don't believe anyone was surprised that Twan died in the bloodbath. By the time I began writing, the only things I knew about his character was from his lunaii and some very basic descriptions. Most of the information about him on his page was added by Connor. I think he just might be the biggest blank slate character in the series. Valencia Sonar Like with Ophelia, Valencia was a character that I liked. Unfortunately, her mentor was not active for most of the Games pre-bloodbath and I had no idea when, or if, she would return. That meant I could gamble on the chance of a return, or go the most logical route and kill Valencia off. I chose to kill her. But seeing as Valencia was one of the best fighters in the arena, she couldn't just die to anyone. No, it had to be a real threat who killed her. And that is why Takeko was the one to do it. I think their fight makes sense and is true to the characters, which is important. When writing a Games—at least, a good one—you can't kill characters off in ways that don't make sense for said character just so you can be rid of them. It has to be believable. And I think Valencia's death is. Valencia would attack Takeko and she would be egged on by Takeko's blatant disregard for her. In short, while I knew that I had to kill Valencia, I also knew that I would have to kill her in a way that made sense. This is something that I believe holds true for the series in a whole. Mercury Kwildor When I first stopped and thought out a story arc for Mercury, I immediately knew it would be about him "proving his worth". But I had two very different ideas on how he would go about accomplishing this. One would be for him to go out of his way and try to prove his strength to Copper. He would kill as many tributes as he could, some in truly brutal fashion. Mercury would silently hate himself and what he has become, slowly beginning to realize that he may not actually be proving anything at all. The other idea was what ended up happening. As I said below, Mercury saving Mario was, in a way, him showing his worth. To Mercury, saving one person was something more impressive than killing any number of people. How I ended up deciding this was actually based on Caitlyn's advice. In her advice she decided that Mercury would be more merciful and benevolent, not trying to best Copper's bloodbath tally. Thus, that was the deciding factor in me choosing his second route. However, had she chosen to have him try and best Copper's tally, he would have gone down the first route. In short, Caitlyn's advice was what decided which path Mercury took. Nicholas Mecha Nicholas was one of what I call "supernatural tributes". His deal was very otherworldly and, at the same time, very pivotal to his character. Was the supernatural part of his character real? Or is he just delusional? I had a unique perspective when dealing with such a character. Immediately I knew that everyone would be wondering if Nicholas actually had a deal with Satan or not. The way I handled it was to be ambiguous about it. Nicholas obviously believes that what was happening to him is real and treats it accordingly. However, no one else's PoV confirms this as real. The story does not confirm it. So, in a way, Nicholas may very well be an unreliable narrator. He may just be a delusional boy who unfortunate events keep happening to. Or he may very well be completely sane and everything about him and his deal is absolutely true. While I personally am a believer of the supernatural and think that what is happening to Nicholas is real, I leave some ambiguity so that those who do not like or believe in the supernatural can try and find a way to debunk the supernatural events in a series otherwise mostly grounded in a more scientifically-acceptable light. The same holds true for some of the other supernatural tributes. Nicholas as a character was always destined to die in the bloodbath. Since he was cursed, I found it only logical that his death would be swift and come as a surprise to him. It also happens to occur precisely because of his luck. Topher ducks and a knife not meant for Nicholas ends up killing him. It's the kind of thing I think Satan would take sadistic joy in. Also, it's always a nice when I can tie a characters death into their personality or backstory. Elia Donsown I have a confession to make. Elia's early death in the bloodbath was a mistake. I liked Elia as a character and, looking back, am upset with how I handled her. Elia was originally slated to be apart of the Anti-Careers before Connor changed his mind and swapped her into the Fools. This was a late change, and you can actually see the effect of it in the writing. In Teddy's PoV during training, it was originally Elia, not Lilah, who offered him the candy. Which is why Lilah acts so out of character during that scene. I didn't have the time to rewrite the scene, but nor did I feel it right to deny Connor the alliance swap. After all, I had said that alliance switches would be allowed until training had begun, and it had not yet begun at the time he asked. So, Elia was moved into the Fools and I took Lilah--whose mentor had not chosen an alliance for her--and placed her in the Anti-Careers. I already had some story beats planned out for that alliance and I felt that the extra body was necessary. Of course, this also changed some other storylines, but I can speak about that later. As an effect of the change, Elia was left in a sort of "character limbo", so to speak. While I did have a plan for the Fools, Elia did not exactly fit into it. I wanted the Fools to be lost and confused after the bloodbath, depressed over Nicholas' death and unsure of what to do next. This could not occur if Elia was alive. She is too focused, too cheerful. She would have kept the alliance on their toes and offered them a plan. She, basically, would have made the Fools a competent force. So, when I was looking back at the bloodbath Povs and noticing that there were only five deaths, I came to a conundrum. Logically, there wouldn't be so few deaths, not with so many of the tributes attending the bloodbath. I felt that it was necessary to add at least one more. So I looked at the Fools. I thought back to Elia and how she effected her alliance, and I made the regrettable decision to kill her. It is unfortunate that the death I chose was so mundane. She sees a weapon she wants and grabs it, not noticing Nylah sneak up on her. There's no real spectacle of the death. It's very bland. If I could go back and redo something, I'd definitely redo this. Elia, as a character, deserved better treatment then she got. I don't know what I would have done with her, or how it would effect the Games as a whole, but it's something I'd do regardless. Alpha Quells I always knew that I'd kill Alpha before Omega. Too many times in Games, this series included, the overprotective older sibling would outlive the younger sibling and then proceed to go on a roaring rampage of revenge—with varying results. In any case, I sought to avoid this situation by having Alpha die first. I thought it would be interesting and fresh if I explored how Omega reacted to his passing. Of course, even though I knew from the start that Alpha would die before his sister, what I didn't know was when and how he'd die. That came naturally over time. The District 6 & 11 alliance was always interesting in that none of the four really trusted anyone outside their District partner. The personalities of Armado and Alpha were just not compatible and, had Alpha lived longer, this alliance would have imploded, with bloody results. Before deciding that Alpha would die on day two, this was actually where I was headed with this plotline. But, like many things in this series, plans changed. Advice and Echo's meltdown both didn't lend itself well to the alliance escaping the upcoming Career attack unscathed. I still got to pull off the lack of trust angle by having Armado and Lavender simply up and run, leaving Alpha high and dry. To be fair, running was the only real option. Had they all tried to fight back they'd have been killed. They'd have taken down some Careers in the process, true, but they would still be dead. Alpha should have run too, but his arrogance got the best of him. Something I liked about the whole encounter is that Alpha didn't die right away. His delayed death let Omega anguish over "abandoning him" and let her get false hope about the possibility of his survival. It also let me bring their backstory into focus, the whole thing made the Quell's siblings story stronger, I think. Alpha's death served to make Omega's character and story grow. That's something that I feel strongly about. Every death should, in some way, serve to bolster the story. Whether that be the main story or just a characters arc, it doesn't matter. Pretty much every character will die, per the rules of the Games, so you need to use each death to its fullest. That's what I think separates the great Games from the mediocre—impactful deaths. Category:Blog posts